The book: Memories in my Luggage

The ideaFor several years the German author Sabine Nielsen had wanted to collate the stories of German migrants to Australia. Encouraged by friends and fellow Germans she eventually started. For two years Sabine Nielsen talked to migrants who arrived in Australia from Germany in the years between 1933 and 1991. The result: Thirteen fascinating stories that highlight the migration experience.

Why such a project? They were displaced persons or refugees. They were persecuted for their faith or found their homes devastated after WWII. They were driven by need or curiosity; they came for love or to start anew. They came from different parts of Germany and they all helped to shape Australia and became part of the multi-cultural country which it is today.

In Melbourne, they experienced housing shortages, butchers who wrapped the meat in newspapers; life before cappuccinos, latés or machiatos; the 6 o’clock swill ... and learned about mateship and barbecues. Join them on their journey towards integration, laugh, cry and participate in the adventure of immersing yourself in a new culture.

Reviews

‘Yes, the stories in your book are all very interesting and moving.Of course, the stories somehow all seem "familiar" to those of us who migrated out to this country as we have all had similar experiences. Some very challenging and sad but some also, highly amusing.

Making the decision and resorting to being called by your second name because you did not want to be known as "Hermann the German", when you went to school here, made me smile and it brought back my own, school recollections. Congratulations on the book. Much success. You deserve it!’ Irene Clark

‘You have to set goals in life. Whether they’ll be achieved, you can never really know, but if things work out, they work out!’ Fred Glasbrenner, arrived 1956

A photograph by David Moore tells its own story

by Sabine NielsenWhen my publisher suggested David Moore's 1966 photographMigrants Arriving in Sydney for the cover of the English version of Memories in my Luggage, I immediately agreed. Commissioned by the National Geographic magazine, it is one of the most famous works of modern Australian photography. The faces of these migrants express such a range of feelings and raw emotion – from hope and expectancy to uncertainty, even fear.I remember feeling exactly the same when I arrived here at Station Pier in 1972 on board of the Fairstar.The photographer, David Moore(6 April 1927 – 23 January 2003), was a well-known and respected Australian photojournalist. In a career spanning over sixty years, he worked on assignments internationally, as well as in Australia. “I would like my pictures to reflect a little of the respect I have for the great masters of the past, at the same time as celebrating the mystery of ambiguous elements which are often embedded in photographs.” Similar emotions to those shown on Migrants Arriving in Sydney, can be seen in a series documenting the lives of the poor working class and unemployed in the suburb of Redfern. This series included a major exhibition by Edward Steichen, The Family of Man, which toured the world. In the 1970s, Moore developed non-commissioned works aimed at capturing what he called "the soft flow of time", but for me, the "decisive moment" of Migrants Arriving in Sydney is both stunning and daunting.